Common to all young children is the emergence of teeth through the gums which is associated with discomfort and pain. Parents and pediatricians alike are often frustrated in their efforts to determine whether a child's discomfort and irritability is because of "teething" or some other reason. At present there is no simple way to make this determination. The experienced pediatrician may palpate the gums and look for redness but this method is useful only in the advanced stages of emergence of teeth.
There has been a device developed which assists in the examination of the tooth-jaw structure as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,355, entitled "Method and Apparatus for the non-invasive examination of the Tooth-Jaw structure of a patient to determine the characteristics of unerupted teeth and to control nutritional intake pursuant thereto" and issued to Harry A. and Mark A. Traiger. This rather elaborate device uses a source of illumination and an opto-detector in conjunction with a linear displacement transducer to provide size, distance and spatial measurements of structures in the jaw. This expensive and complex system is for use in a dental office by trained professionals. A cited benefit of this device is as an alternative to using x-rays, especially in young children. Other devices have been developed for use by the dentist in illuminating and/or increasing visualization in the patient's mouth. For example U.S. Patent No. 4,790,751, entitled "Dental Viewing Apparatus and Method" issued to Richard Reinhardt, and Roca and Gerald Tussing, which is incorporated herein by reference, uses a fiber optic light guide and source with an intensity sufficient for transillumination. The apparatus is incorporated into an instrument to deliver air and water flow as well. This apparatus, like the previous one is only suitable for dental professionals. A number of articles on using fiberoptics for illumination of the oral cavity are referenced in the patent.
Another area pertinent to the present invention is magnifiers. While there are a number of patents issued to inventors of magnifiers, none are expressly for dental applications. Among the patents relating to magnifiers are U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,588 entitled "Magnifier with Reference Line" issued to Emil and Lorraine Dalbo, incorporated herein by reference, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,616 entitled "Ruler with Magnifying Cursor" issued to Brian Hills. In both of these patents the magnifier portion is a single cylindrical type lens held very close to the material needing to be magnified.
A refinement of magnifying devices is to provide a source of illumination. Fiber optic light guides have been incorporated into some dental devices as those referenced above. Other approaches are for general purpose magnifiers. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,405 issued to Richard Feinbloom, incorporated herein by reference, illustrates use of a light diffuser comprised of an annular light pipe which is abraded to diffuse light uniformly over a surface being viewed through a lens held over the surface. While illustrative of a method for introduction of additional illumination using a light pipe, an annular ring is not appropriate in the present application.
None of the foregoing devices or methods address the need for an inexpensive, easy-to-use device which enables the lay person to determine whether pre-emergent teeth are pushing through the gums of small children. By taking a simpler approach than is typical in dental applications, the present invention solves a major problem.